A stereoscopic view refers to a perceived image that appears to encompass a 3-dimensional (3D) volume. To generate the stereoscopic view, a device displays two images on a 2-dimensional (2D) area of a display. These two images include substantially similar content, but with slight displacement along the horizontal axis of one or more corresponding pixels in the two images. The simultaneous viewing of these two images, on a 2D area, causes a viewer to perceive an image that is popped out of or pushed into the 2D display that is displaying the two images. In this way, although the two images are displayed on the 2D area of the display, the viewer perceives an image that appears to encompass the 3D volume.
The two images of the stereoscopic view are referred to as a left-eye image and a right-eye image, respectively. The left-eye image is viewable by the left eye of the viewer, and the right-eye image is not viewable by the left eye of the viewer. Similarly, the right-eye image is viewable by the right eye of the viewer, and the left-eye image is not viewable by the right eye of the viewer. For example, the viewer may wear specialized glasses, where the left lens of the glasses blocks the right-eye image and passes the left-eye image, and the right lens of the glasses blocks the left-eye image and passes the right-eye image.
Because the left-eye and right-eye images include substantially similar content with slight displacement along the horizontal axis, but are not simultaneously viewable by both eyes of the viewer (e.g., because of the specialized glasses), the brain of the viewer resolves the slight displacement between corresponding pixels by commingling the two images. The commingling causes the viewer to perceive the two images as an image with 3D volume.
In some cases, there may be more than two views. For instance, to accommodate for different viewer angles, there may be a plurality of views, and the viewer may see two views of these many views, one from the right-eye and the other from the left-eye.